Breakdown of Viele junge Besucher entdeckten das Sachbuch.
viel
much / a lot
jung
young
entdecken
to discover
der
who, which, that (relative pronoun; die, das)
das Sachbuch
the non-fiction book
der Besucher
the visitor
Questions & Answers about Viele junge Besucher entdeckten das Sachbuch.
Why is it junge and not jungen after viele?
Words like viele (many), einige (some), and mehrere (several) are treated like normal adjectives in the plural. This means they don't do the heavy lifting of a definite article. Since this is the nominative case, both viele and junge take the strong adjective ending -e. If you used alle (all) instead, it would act like a definite article and force the weak ending: alle jungen Besucher.
What is the literal translation of Sachbuch?
Sachbuch is a compound noun made from die Sache (the thing, matter, or subject) and das Buch (the book). A thing-book is the standard German word for a non-fiction book!
Why is there a -t- in the middle of entdeckten?
That -t- tells you the verb is in the simple past tense (Präteritum). Entdecken (to discover) is a regular verb, so its past stem is formed by adding -te- to the base (entdeck-). Then, it takes the plural ending -n to match the plural subject Besucher.
What case is das Sachbuch here?
It is in the accusative case because it is the direct object (the thing being discovered). Because Buch is a neuter noun, the definite article das looks exactly the same in the accusative as it does in the nominative.
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